Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1887-04-18
SERMON OF THE TINES
DR. FALMAGR GOES INTO THE DEEP CUES
TIONS OF THE HOUR
What is the Moral Effect Of Free Masonry, ODD Fel-
lOwship Knights Of Labor, Greek Alphabet
and Other Societies DIR. falmage's
Views on These Questions
yD,cinl r,leora,a 10 ne Register.

views on lheSo SuoStOhS.
Special telegram 10 ne Register.
BROOKLYN, April 17.-Tbe Rev. 1. De-
Witt Talmage, DID,, announced to his
congregation to-day that as the Brooklyn
Tabernacle has been uneomfortably crowd
ed for many years the trustees have pur'
chased the adjoining ground, on which
great church. prayer and Sunday-sehool
room will be built, which on Sabbaths can
be opened into the main auditorium, thus
giving room for at least thousand more
hearers at services. Six thousand people
are crowded into the present building;
four thousand six hundred and fifty OF
these in pews and about fifteen hundred
seated in aisles and standing, The i'm
provement will add greatly to this ca
pacity.
The subject of DR.. Talmage's sermon to-
day was, what is the Moral Effect oil
Free Masonry, Odd Fellowship, Knights OF
Labor, Greek Alphabet and Other Socl-
eties?" The text was from Proverbs, XIV.
8: Discover not secret to another" Dr.
Talmage said:
1t appears that
IN sOLOMON'S TIME,
as in all subsequent periods OF the world,
there were people too much disposed to
tell all they knew. 1t was blab, blab,
blab; physicians revealing the case of their
patients, lawyers exposing the private al
fairs of their clients, neighborS advertising
the faults of the next door resident, pre-
tended friends betraying confidence One
hall of the trouble of every community
comes from the fact that 50 many people
have not capacity to keep their mouths
shut.
When hear something of yOu my first
duty is not to tell you. But il | tell you
what somebody has said against you, and
then 20 out and tell others what | told
them that told you, and we all 90 out,
some to hunt up the originator of the story
and Others to hunt it down we shall get
the whole community talking about what
you did do and what you did not do, and
there will be as many scalps taken as
though band OF MOdOcS had swept upon
a helpless village. We have two ears but
only ore tongue, q physiological sngges-
tiOn that we ought to hear good deal
more than We tell. Let Us join con.
spiracy that we will tell each other all the
good and nothing of the i'll, and there will
not be such awful need of sermons on Solo
mons words:
DISCOVER NOT A SECRET TO ANOTHER. J"
Solomon had very large domestic cir
Gle. In his earlier days he had very con-
fused notions about mOnOgamy and pOlyg-
amy, and his multitudinOus associates in
the matrimonial state kept him too well
informed rs to what was going on in Je-
rusalem. They gathered up all the priva-
cies OF the city and poured them into his
ear, and his family became a SOrOsis or
female debating society of seven hundred,
discussing day after day all the difficulties
between husbands and wives, between en-
ployers and employees, between rulers and
subjects, until Solomon, in my text, de-
plores vOlubilty about affairs that do not
belong to us and eXtOls the virtue of Sc
CretiveneSs.
By the power Of secret diyulged fami-
lies, churches, neighbOrhOOds, nations fly
apart. By the power of a secret kept,
great charities, sOcialities, ref0rmatOry
movements and Christian enterprises may
be advanced. Men are gregari0us-c cattle
in herds, fish in schools, birds in focks,
men in social circles. You may by the dis
charge of gun scatter a flock OF quails or
by a plunge of the anchor send apart the
denizens of the sea, but they will gather
themselves together again. If you, by
some new power, could break the assOCia-
tions in which men now stand, they would
again adhere.
GOD MEANT IT 50.
He has gathered all the flowers ard shrubs
into associations. You may plant one
forget-me-nOt or heartsease alone, away oil
upon the hillside, but it will soon hunt up
some other forget -me-uOt or heartsease.
Plants love company. You will find them
talking to each other in the dew. A gal
axy Of stars is only mutual life insurance
company. You sometimes see q man with
no Outbranchings of sympathy. His ma
ture is cold and hard like a ships mast
ice glazed, which the most agile sailor
could never climb. Others have thOus-
and roots and a thousand branches. In
Vulnerable tendrils climb their hearts,
and blossom all the way up, and the fowls
OF heaven sing in the branches. In conse.
ounce Of this tendency we find men com.
ing together in tribes, in communities, in
churches, in societies. Some come together
tO cultivate the arts, some TO plan for the
welfare OF the State, some to discuss re.
ligiOus themes, some to kindle their mirth,
some to advance their craft. So every ac-
tive community is divided into associations
of artists, of merchants, of boOkbinders,
of carpenters, of masOns, of plasterers, OF
shipwrights, OF plumbers Do you cry
out against it? Then you cry out against
tendency divinely implanted Your
TRADE would accomplish no more than if
you should preach to busy ant-hill or
beehive long sermon against
SECRET SOCIETIES.
Here we find the oft-discussed question
whether associations that do their work
with closed doors and admit their mem
bers by passwords, and greet each other
with secret grip are right or wrong. /
answer that it depends entirely on the
nature of the object for which they meet.
Is it to pass the hours in revelry, wassail,
blasphemy and obscene talk, OF to plot
trouble to the State, or to debauch the
innocent, then l say with an emphasis
that no man can mistake. No! But is
the object the defense of the rights of any
class against oppression, the improvement
of the mind, the enlargement Of the heart,
the advancement OF art, the defense OF the
Government, the extirpatiOn of crime or
the kindling of a pure-hearted sOciality,
then l say, with Just as much emphasis,
Yes.
THERE IS NO NEED
that we who plan for the conquest of right
over wrong should publish to all the world
our intentions. The general of an army
never sends to the opposing troops infor-
nation of the coming attack. Shall we
who have enlisted in the cause of God and
humanity expose our plans to the enemy? ?